Under the Surface
by HopeIsTheWorld
Summary: Annabeth Chase has a hard life. Her father abuses her, she cuts herself, all her friends betrayed her and she's getting bullied. But in senior year things begin to change. Is it possible that her biggest bully, Percy Jackson, can see through her mask? Some things change. She doesn't know yet, if this is good or bad. Rated T for abuse and selfharm.
1. Prologue

**Hey guys! So, this is my first story, but it's not technically mine. I was really interested in this story. It's by sophie-the-wise-one and she approved of me continuing it, so you can't accuse me of stealing the story! Ha! Anyway, I hope you like this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON OR ANY PART OF IT!**

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My name is Annabeth Chase. You probably want to know something about my life, my horrible life. Maybe I'll tell you. I mean, I already told someone. A girl. Her name is Thalia Grace. She was my best friend. Thalia, too, had a hard life. Her mom was always drunk and yelled at her. I trusted her with my darkest secrets, but then, at the beginning of sophomore year, she moved away. I know it wasn't her fault, but when she left, things got worse.

My so called 'friends' ditched me. They, and the other students, began bullying me. That really hurt. Even my best friend: Percy Jackson. He became a stereotypical jock. He became my biggest bully. He told me I was ugly, hideous, a worthless piece of shit, a nobody. It hurt like hell. Can you imagine I almost told him my secrets? Well, that was a day before Thalia left. I had hoped that he had this attitude just for a small amount of time. But I was wrong. Junior year came. The bullying still went on, but I started to become numb. I could still hear it, but it couldn't hurt me anymore. I became used to it.

But all these things aren't my biggest problems. I have two dark secrets. My first and biggest problem is my dad. Fredrick Chase. He was always nice and a great dad, but then my mother died because of a brain tumor. My dad, he changed… a lot. It started on my 8th birthday, when he came to my room. I was reading my favorite book, To Kill A Mockingbird. He said, "Get up." Of course I had obeyed. But then he just slapped me in the face and said, "If you ever tell someone about this, I will kill you." Then he walked out of my room.

I have another, quite big, problem. I cut myself. After every day, when I wake up because of a slap in the face, go to school, where Percy calls me names, I come home and get a beating from my dad, I go to the drawer in my room. Here I keep my blade hidden. I get the blade, go to the bathroom and swipe the blade over my arm. The blade leaves angry, red mark all over my arm. I know it is an addiction. I know it's sick. But this is the only way I can let my anger, sadness, and pain out. I mean, what would you do in my place?

So, you still want to know my story? I'll tell you. I'll start with the beginning of my senior year in Goode High School, New York. I thought this year would be the same as last year. Oh gods… if I only know how wrong I was.

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 **So that's the end of Chapter 1! But this chapter was written by sophie-the-wise-one. I'm planning on publishing once a week, 'cause, well, I wanna get y'all curious. Yes, I can get a little evil once in a while. Well, maybe more than a little, just ask CharmingLittleRuby, she would know, right Ruby? ;) Also, even though the next chapters will be the same as the original story, I wanna treat this story like any other story. So, bye and see you when I see you! Oh, wait, I can't see you, but who knows? Anyway, BYEEEEEEE!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! I'm super super super sorry for not updating! I had final exams and other schools stuff, ya know, the normal excuses of an author. Just joking! Anyway, here's chapter 1 of Under the Surface! Hope you enjoy it!**

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I woke up because of a stinging pain in my face. I opened my eyes to see my dad with a raised hand. He said, "Wake up! Make me breakfast! Now!" Then he turned around and went to the door. When I heard the door close with a slam, I rolled out of my bed. I was still a little bit sore. When I was out of my bed, I went to the bathroom. While I went to brush my teeth, the mirror catches my eye. My eyes went to scan my reflection. I wasn't happy with what I saw: fizzy, honey-blond hair and dull gray eyes. If you looked good in my eyes you could see through the façade. If you looked good you could see all the pain and all the sadness in my eyes. But nobody ever cared enough to even try, because nobody cared about me. The only one who had ever succeed was Thalia, but she's gone now. But the more obvious thing you could see about my eyes, was my black, right eye from the beating yesterday. In other words, yesterday was horrible...

 _*Flashback*_

 _I came home from a crappy day of school. Percy was more horrible than normal, if that was even possible. This was probably because of the date. Today it is when my Mom died 10 years ago. This also means that Dad would be more angry. Speaking of Dad, how late is it anyway? Oh no! It's 5.02. Dad always wants me home at 5 o'clock. Stupid Percy, this is all your fault, if you and your friends didn't bother me till 4.50… well I can't change anything about that, can I? I just need to face his punishment._

 _*Time skip till arrival at home*_

 _When I opened the door to my house, it was nearly 5.10. 'I'm so screwed' I thought. When I opened the door, I could see my Dad waiting for me in the hallway. Then I stepped inside and closed the door._

 _When I stood in front of my father, I could smell alcohol. /emDammit!em I thought, /emhe's drunkem. He probably went to the bar because today was the day Mom died. But if he's drunk, then he doesn't care /emwhereem he hits me. Normally, he doesn't hit me in the face. I mean if I walk around with multiple wounds on my face, it would be a bit suspicious, don't you think?_

 _"You're late, bitch" He slurred "How late is it?"_

 _"5.12, Sir."_

 _"And what time were you supposed to be here?" he asked._

 _I gulped "5 o'clock, S-sir"_

 _"You need to be punished" he stated._

 _Then, without warning, he threw a punch at my face. His fist hit my right eye. Because of the impact, I fell on the ground. When I was on the ground he started kicking my sides, my legs and the rest of my body. I started to scream, but he clamped his hand over my mouth, while he hissed into my ear, "We have neighbors remember? We don't want them to know about our little secret, now do we?" I shook my head in a 'no'. "Good" he said. Then he stopped kicking. I sighed in relief. He said, "Get out of my face! Now!" Then he walked away._

 _When I tried to stand, I immediately fell down again. Then I choose the only other option: I crawled. When I arrived at my room, I went to search for my first aid kit and started bandaging my wounds. When I was done, I stumbled to my drawer. I took my blade out of its hiding place and went to the bathroom._

 _While I swiped my blade across my arm, I thought about the things that happened to me today. Every mean comment from Percy and his club of popular students left a angry, red mark on my arm. Every beating from my dad left an angry, red mark. Everything bad in my life left an angry, red mark._

 _When I was done, there were 20 new marks from my blade. As I started to bandage my wounds, I started to think if my life would change someday. This is my last year from High School. What am I supposed to do when I graduate? Does Dad want to let me stay in this house? This thought sent shivers across my spine. I really don't want to stay here. When I turn 18 I'm going to leave. I'm sure of that._

 _When I was done bandaging my cuts, I went to my bed and changed into my sleeping clothes. Then I went to bed._

 _*End flashback*_

When I snapped out of my thoughts, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast for my Dad. When I was done, I placed it on the table, got my school bag, and went outside. As I walked towards school, I bumped into someone. The impact sent both of us sprawling on the floor. "Hey, watch where you're going!" a very familiar voice said. I looked up and saw a girl, dressed all in black, with raven-colored hair and electrifying, blue eyes… No way! This isn't possible! She was supposed to be somewhere across the country. "Thalia?" I asked. "Annabeth…" she whispered. Then she came forward. I thought she was going to hit me, so I flinched. But she did something very different, she gave me a very tight hug. I was shocked to say at least. I mean, the last time someone hugged me was 10 years ago.

Then she asked "Why did you flinch like that?"

"You don't remember, do you?" I sighed.

"What don't I remember… What happened to your eye… Oh no. He still…?" She said with disbelief in her voice.

"Yes, he still does." I said.

"Then I heard another voice. "Yeah, Annie. What happened to your eye?" Oh no. I forgot Thalia was HIS cousin. I turned around to see Percy standing there.

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 **So... that's the end of chapter 1! Hope y'all liked it! I promise I'll update as soon as possible. Gotta go now, bye!**


	3. Chapter 2

**MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!**

 **You all hate me, I know! But I'm SUPER, SUPER, SUPER sorry! I was so focused on school, I didn't have time for the story. I know, not a good excuse. Just consider this my Christmas gift to all of you! So, I hope you enjoy!**

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I looked up to see the sea green eyes of my bully. His eyes seemed so seeing him this close to me, I was reminded of all the good times we had. But I was immediately brought from these thoughts as Percy sneered and said, "Yeah, what happened with your ugly face, Annie?"

"Thalia looked at him with surprise at hearing this. _Huh_ , I thought to myself, _I guess he didn't tell her what's been happening since she left, the coward!_ At this thought, I silently smirked to myself. But then again, I guess I understood why he didn't tell her. I mean, if Thalia gets angry, things would become _very ugly_.

Pushing away these thoughts, I stood up and and flinched a little, because my body still really hurt. Then I walked up to Percy and spat, "And why in the world would you care, Jackson? You don't care about me, right? Because you made it _very, very_ clear to me that you don't!" At this point, I was almost yelling. Then for a slight moment, _so slight_ that it was probably just my imagination, I thought I saw regret in his eyes, but it was immediately replaced by anger. I gulped. I was in trouble.

He walked up to me and grabbed my arm. But when his hand connected with my wrist, where a few new cuts were, I yelped. Searing pain shot through my whole arm, and his tight grip wasn't helping. He looked slightly surprised when I yelped, but then he smirked and said, "What's wrong Annie? Is that how much of a wimp you are? I barely touched you!" He started to laugh at this.

His moment of amusement was only short-lived as his comment made Thaila snap out of her shock and start yelling at him, "Let her go, Percy! Why are you calling her a wimp? She is the bravest and strongest person I know!" When she said this, tears started to form in my eyes. I haven't had someone say anything nice or good about me in a very long time. I silently thanked Thalia.

Percy scoffed and said, "Bravest and strongest person you know?! Come on, Thalia! She's just some stupid girl who nobody wants! Her mom died on her birthday, probably because she didn't want anything to do with that piece of…" Percy's voice faded as I started to jog away, because I didn't want to hear anything more. It was just too painful. None of them even noticed that I was gone. I'm sure that Thalia would ditch me soon too so that she could be with her cousin, the _winning side_.

I was so engulfed in these thoughts that I didn't know where I was going. I just knew that I wanted to get away from everything and be alone.

When I finally started to become tired, I looked around to see where I was. I was in a not too deep part of a beautiful forest. There were large trees, birds, and even some squirrels. As I was looking around, I remembered something. This was the forest I always went to with my Mom. That would mean our secret tree house should be somewhere here. _Maybe it's still here_ , I thought, _I mean, I still have another half hour till school starts…_

I started to look out for a very big tree with an owl carved in it.

 **Five minutes later**

I found it! For some reason, I was nervous to go inside. I don't know why, I guess it was because I haven't been here since my mom had died.

I started searching a lever. When I found it, I pulled it. A ladder fell down. I started to climb up, but it was difficult because my body still hurt. When I finally reached the top, the sight that met me put me on the verge of tears. My mom had made this for me when she was still alive. I saw the old pillows and blankets we always used. They were not just pillows and blankets. My mom had hand-made them.

I would've stayed longer, but when I looked at my watch, I realised that school would start soon. _Oh joy…_ I thought as I climbed down the ladder and started to walk to school.

 **Time skip to arrival at Goode High School**

As I walked down the hallway, anyone who looked my way went silent. They probably did this because of my black eye. But by the time I was nearing my locker, people had started calling me names and chucking things at me. When I reached my locker, I saw that Thalia was beside it, probably waiting for me. I was expecting her to say something like _'I can't be your friend anymore'_ , so you can imagine my shock when she walked up to me, gave me a hug, and whispered in bye ear, "I really hate to see you like this, Annabeth."

"There's really nothing you can do about it..." I said sadly, but I was interrupted by some girl's voice.

"Why are you hugging _her_?" the voice said with disgust in her very annoying, perky, bubbly voice. I turned around to see the one and only Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

You see, Rachel used to be one of my friends, but she ditched me in freshman year, even before Thalia had left. When she ditched me, she immediately became the Queen Bee of school. She's actually the reason Percy changed. They started dating after Thalia left, and with Rachel's influence, he became the biggest jerk in school.

"I'm hugging an old friend, _Barbie_! Go stick your made-up face in someone else's business!" Thalia snapped at her. Rachel just scoffed and strutted away.

"You don't need to stand up for me, Thalia. It happens every day, I'm used to it," I said. She looked taken aback when I said this.

"Why don't your friends do anything about it?" She asked.

"What _friends_? When you left, Thalia, my so called _friends_ ditched me," I answered.

She just stared at me with disbelief. Then she said, "We need to talk. We're skipping school today, since you can't come after school. Let's go to Starbucks."

"Sure," I answered.

She looked surprised when I said this as she muttered, "Annabeth Chase has no problem with skipping school. What happened to you?"

"My Dad and your cousin happened." I answered calmly.

She looked at me pitifully and said, "Look, I didn't know that this was happening, otherwise…"

I didn't let her finish her sentence as I said, "It isn't your fault, Thalia, so stop apologizing. Now let's go to Starbucks."

We started to walk out of the school towards Starbucks. Little did we know that a certain green-eyed, black-haired boy heard us and started to follow us.

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 **So that's a wrap for today's chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I promise that I'll try my best to post more frequently! MERRY CHRISTMAS!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! I know, you guys probably hate me (again) for not publishing in like, forever. I understand. *sniff, sniff* JUST KIDDING! I ain't gonna cry! But I'm not kidding about the being sorry though. I'm going to confess that I've already had this chapter for over a month already but I was too busy to post it. Once again, sorry! Anyway, enough talking and more reading. Enjoy!**

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"Where do you think you are going, Miss Chase and Miss Grace?" A grumpy voice said behind us.

We turned around to see Miss Dodds.

Miss Dodds is the math teacher that hated all of the students here in Goode High, especially me. I don't even know why. Maybe it was because I tend to correct her during class. Whenever I corrected her, she gives me an evil eye that could easily be translated to ' _I want to kill you_ '. That look gives most people the creeps, but I'm pretty much used to it.

"Hello Miss Dodds, we were just goi-" I started with my excuse, but she cut me off with a wave of her hand and said, "I don't care. You both have detention."

With that, she handed us our slips and walked away. Realisation dawned on me as she disappeared down the hall. If I had detention, I would have to come home late. But I couldn't be late at home, I was already late yesterday. If I'm late again, Dad would punish me. A lot.

At these thoughts, I started hyperventilating while Thalia tried to calm me down. We were so focused on trying to calm me down that we didn't notice our sea green-eyed stalker getting scolded by Miss Dodds and getting a detention slip.

When I finally calmed down, I tried to apologise to Thalia for breaking down and getting her in trouble on her first day, but she said, "You don't need to apologise. I get it, Annabeth. There's just one thing I want to know, but we can discuss that during detention, alright? Now we still need to go to class if we don't want another slip."

"Alright lets go," I said.

With that, we started to walk to our first class, which — coincidentally — was the same. Luckily, this class was Latin, my favourite subject that was taught by my favourite teacher, Mr. Brunner.

When we finally arrived, the bell had already rung, meaning we were late. As we entered, the whole class looked in our direction, even Mr. Brunner.

I started to explain, "I'm really sorry, sir, for being late. I was showing Thalia around. She's new here."

"It's alright Miss Chase," then he turned to Thalia and said, "Miss ...?"

"Grace," she replied.

"Alright, Miss Grace, I hope you don't have a problem with sitting next to Miss Chase here?"

"No sir. Not at all," she answered.

"Well then, please take your seats, ladies."

With that we started to walk to the only available seats, the ones in the very back of the room. When we walked past Percy — he was in this class too — he stuck out his foot. I didn't see it, so I fell face down on the floor. The whole class was snickering, except Thalia and Mr. Brunner. Thalia sent her famous death glare to Percy and he shuddered. She then helped me up and we sat down in our seats.

As I sat down, I started to get lost in my thoughts, _Maybe there's hope now 'cause Thalia's here. This means I have a friend who doesn't leave me when I need them the most._

For the first time in a very long time, I felt hope. My hope was like the moon radiating light in the dark night. My hope may be small, but maybe — just _maybe_ — my life is going to change.

 **Time skip to detention**

When we came in the classroom, we saw Mr. Brunner — _Thank the gods he's our detention teacher!_ , I thought — and the one and only Percy Jackson. I wondered what he had done this time. _Probably picked on some poor kid again_ , I thought as I rolled my eyes.

We checked in with Mr. Brunner and went to sit is the back of the classroom. There was nobody else in the room, so Thalia and I talked.

I told her everything that had happened to me since she left. I told her about Percy and how much it hurt that he betrayed me. She got angry when I told her about the bullying, but more so when I told her that dad had gotten worse. She asked me what he did to me and I said that he did almost everything you could imagine. Hitting, kicking, slapping. One time he'd even stabbed me. It was just my shoulder, but it hurt like Hades. He even whipped me a few times with a belt. That was the worst of all. He did everything to me except sexual harassment, and I'm glad he never tried.

By the time I finished telling my sob story, our detention was over. I looked at the clock and saw that it was already 5:15pm. I started to panic as I thought of how angry dad would be and what he would do to saw me and said, "Go, Annabeth. I'll explain to Mr. Brunner you had a family emergency. I'll distract Percy, too." _Oh, gosh_ , I thought, _I completely forgot that he was my neighbour!_

I hugged her and said, "Thank you so much, Thalia."

She hugged me back and said, "No problem. Now, go!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, I ran out of the classroom and headed for my house.

 **Time skip to arrival at home**

When I entered my house, it was already 5:45pm. I was really late. My heart started beating faster and faster as I saw him standing in the living room, completely sober, waiting for me.

He said, "I thought I told you to be home by 5pm. It's 5:45 now. You're a tad late, aren't you?"

I decided to play safe and said, "Yes, sir."

He just crossed his arms and said, "Because of that, you should be punished. Pull off your shirt."

My eyes immediately became wide and my skin started to go pale. I knew what he was going to do. He was going to whip me. Nonetheless, I obeyed him and pulled my shirt off with shaking hands.

If ever you saw my exposed upper body, you would see bruises, cuts, and, worst of all, scars. My whole body was decorated with scars. It looked as if it went into a shredder.

He grabbed the leather belt he always used for my punishments. It used to be a brown belt, but now it is a bit red, because of my blood. He told me to bend over the table and raised his arm. I braced my self for the pain I knew was going to come, and soon, I felt the belt hit my back with a loud _CRACK._ My back exploded with pain and I wanted to scream, but he held his hand in front of my mouth, so I couldn't. He hit my back with the belt again, and again, and again, and again.

When I knew I was going to pass out soon, he hit my back with one last, powerful hit and dumped me on the ground. Then he said, "I'm gonna go to the bar. When I get back, I don't want to see you. You need to stay with a friend or something… oh wait, you don't have friends. Just sleep on the street for tonight."

With that, he closed the door and I collapsed on the floor. I just wanted to pass out, but I needed to go. I wondered where I could go sleep tonight. _Maybe I could call Thalia,_ I thought, _No, I don't want to be a bother. Hmmm... oh, I know, I could go to my old tree house. Nobody would find me there._

With that decision made, I started to get up, but immediately fell back on the floor, groaning in pain. _Hmmm,_ I thought, _this is gonna be harder than I thought._ Nonetheless, I clenched my teeth and slipped on my red shirt and started to pack some things. It was a slow process, but it was better than lying on the ground.

Once I had everything, I walked out of the house. Not too long after, I hit someone. I fell on the ground and winced. I looked up to see Thalia and Percy. Thalia saw me wince and her eyes widened, though I barely noticed. I just stood up, apologised, and started walking towards my tree house.

Unknown to me, both of them saw blood on my shirt and on the ground where I sat. They started to follow me to see what was wrong.

 **Time skip to arrival at tree house**

When I finally entered the tree house, I was so exhausted that I forgot to hide the ladder, but at the time I didn't care. I needed to treat my wounds, so I slipped off my shirt to look in the mirror and saw many angry, red stripes covering my back.

As I started to search for my first-aid kit, I didn't notice that two people had entered the tree house, my back to them. I jumped when I heard a voice stuttering behind me, "O-Oh my g-gosh, Annabeth..."

I quickly turned around to see Thalia and her good for nothing, annoying, and tormenting cousin, Percy.

"What are you doing here!?" I snapped at them, but immediately realised why they looked so scared.

They saw my scars.

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 **OH NO! What's gonna be Percy's reaction? What's Thalia's?! I promise that I'm already writing Chapter 4, so I hope you'll hear from me soon. Hope you liked this chap!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! I know, it's been, what, 2 weeks? Hey, at least it's longer than normal! So, I apologise for this chapter being short. I'm kind of having a hard time writing right now. No, it's not Writer's Block. Anyway, have anY OF OF YOU WATCHED THE NEW DCOM ZOMBIES?! IT'S AMAZING. Like, I love the character Zed so much and I love the actor Milo Manheim so much. I just…I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!**

 **Anyway, I hope ya'll like this chapter! Again, sorry it's so short!**

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Truth. It always finds a way to come out. Whether you want it to or not. Whether it's going to be hard or easy. It will eventually come out. I knew this. I just didn't think it would be so soon.

All I could do was stare at Thalia and Percy as they stared back at me. It was the _most awkwar_ d silence I had ever experienced, and I knew it wouldn't be the last.

"Oh my gods, Annabeth. I didn't think it was this bad!", Thalia said, tears forming in her eyes.

But I barely heard her as I continued to stare at Percy. I wanted to see what his reaction would be. _He just found out_ , I thought, _would he still act like a jerk or would he finally change?_ Deep in my heart, I hoped that he would finally turn over a new leaf, but I knew that the possibility was very little from the way he had treated me for past couple of years since Thalia left. So, I was completely surprised when I suddenly found myself wrapped in his arms, him sobbing and apologising into my shoulder.

This, as I imagined, shocked Thalia as well. The both of us he'd never, ever, _ever_ seen Percy in such a vulnerable and weak state.

Although I was still mad at him for treating me the way he had for the last couple of years, I could see that he was going to change. So I decided that it wouldn't be so bad to change my attitude towards him, too.

"Hey. Hey, it's okay," I whispered as I hugged him back, which was kind of awkward, "it's not your fault, it's not your fault." I continued my speech of comforting nothingness as we slowly sat down on the floor, him in my arms. I had almost forgotten that Thalia was still there until she joined in on our little group hug. We stayed like that, tears flowing down all of our faces, for about 15 minutes.

When we finally let go, I hesitantly looked up to see what their expressions had become. Percy looked dead serious—but lost, confused, and hurt, too—and Thalia had a mix of different emotions. I could see some regret, some sadness, some disappointment, and, as I expected, quite a lot of anger. But it wasn't her who started talking.

"Who did this?", Percy asked, his voice barely above a whisper and slightly breaking, though I guessed he already had an idea of what the answer was.

Was I supposed to answer? Was I _ready_ to answer? I didn't know what to do. I was scared. _But_ , I told myself, _maybe he won't overreact. There's only one way to find out._

And before I knew what I was doing, I blurted it out, dreading his reaction.

"My Dad."

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 **AHHHHHHH! What will Percy think of this response? Is he angry? Is he** ** _furious_** **? Continue reading if you wanna find out! Bye!**


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